Arts advocates from across Canada gathered in Ottawa on Tuesday to re-think their role in the "creative economy," a concept that has served them well over the past decade but is struggling as the national economy slumps.

The creative economy, a term popularized by urban theorist Richard Florida, argues that supporting artists, thinkers, inventors and others in the so-called "creative class" results in net economic gains for cities and governments.

At "Artists: Powering the Creative Economy?," Tuesday's event put on by the Canadian Conference of the Arts at the National Arts Centre, the effects of policies implemented with the creative class in mind were critiqued.

Kevin Stolarick, a statistician with the University of Toronto's Martin Prosperity Institute who helped contribute to Florida's landmark book The Rise of the Creative Class, said that while the concept has helped artists, decision makers are increasingly looking at the arts as just dollars and cents.

"It's been a trap," Stolarick said.

"It was very easy to fall into, 'Gee, we can fall back on an economic explanation to justify ourselves.' And that was easy when times were good, that was good enough reason to justify the expenses. But times aren't so good anymore."

Arts groups should be funded, Stolarick said, but that funding should come with the understanding that the arts matter.

Devon Ostrom, an artist and organizer, was among those who campaigned for Toronto to funnel money from its billboard tax into arts programs. The decision was a boon to the city's arts community, but Ostrom, too, worries the public is beginning to think of the arts only from an economic perspective.

"We're going to end up developing people further in that direction," Ostrom said.

"I think the ultimate core of what the arts is, and its benefit, is an aesthetic benefit."

Ostrom said the challenge artists now face is not just securing funding, but making the reasoning behind that funding resonate with the public.